When you are confronted with someone who is hard to deal with, how do you respond? When you run into someone, and you find that they treat you badly, and they may be a Christian person, and perhaps you ask some people who know them, and they say, “Well, you know, that’s just Gertrude! That’s just who she is.” You know, that’s just the way they are. And we sort of shrug at sin and go, “That’s that person, and you can’t really expect them to be any different, because that’s who they are.”
That’s the sort of situation Paul is imagining here as we come to Romans 6. He has laid out in Romans 5 the great riches of Christ, and the benefits that we receive from Him (His perfect obedience given to us), and he imagines that the people in Rome would say, “Well, if God’s grace is so great, does it matter if we just keep sinning? You know, if we never actually manage to grow in grace, is that a big problem? Because God’s grace will be shown to be all the greater!” And we just shrug and say, “Well, that’s who I am.”
We see here that that is not the attitude that Christian people should take to their own sin or to other people’s sin. We see here that everyone who believes is baptised into Jesus Christ, and because of that, we are united with Him, and so we are to live like that.
- Everyone Baptised into Christ Jesus (v1-3)
- Is United with Him (v4-10)
- So, Live Like You Know It (v11-14)
Sunday 31st March 2019
Review questions:
- Is our sin not so bad because God will forgive us (v1-2)? Yes/No
- Does being baptised with water unite us to Christ?
- How are we baptised into Jesus (v3)?
- Who has been baptised into Christ Jesus (v3)?
- Why are believers free from sin (v7)?
- When are believers united to Jesus’ resurrection (v8)?
- How do we know Jesus is not under the reign of sin (v10)?
- Do Christians stop sinning? Yes/No
- Can Christians resist temptation (v11, James 4:7)? Yes/No
- How can I offer myself to God (v13)?
benallapresbyterian.org.au 